Re: RAT, The dramaturgy of...

[Laura Winton <fluffysingler@prodigy.net>]

Response to Jonoh:

Point is--theatre ISN'T medicine and shouldn't be treated like it--like
"this is icky, but it's good for you".  Also, my point is that the only
audience ISN'T in the suburbs, but everyone seems to act that way.  There
are 1/3 of a million people in the city proper and very little of what's
offered here seems to be geared toward them.  THAT'S my complaint.  Yes, I
DID choose to live here, and when I came, it did appear to be a vibrant
urban area.  But the people who run things here don't seem to see it that
way.  They don't seem to realize that there are people who choose to live in
the city and might possibly have different perspectives and interests
besides upscale shopping and dining and getting drunk and nightclubs.  (Or
donning a fur coat to go to the theatah.)  Most of the restaurants, clubs
and cafes that are not appropriately upscale have been or are in the process
of being driven from downtown to build more skyscrapers and department
stores and restaurants with valet parking.

I wouldn't mind these places except that they are crowding everyone else
out.  There's no room for the rest of us anymore.  there's a line in one of
my long poems "The inhabitants of the old city are bused out to sweep the
streets, collect the trash, and take it home with them."  That's how it
feels.  I'm sure we're not the only city going through this.  I don't
despise the mainstream.  I watch television, I buy popular music, I go to
the movies (ok--mostly indy films since we DO have a great movie theatre
here for such things).  I MIND monoculture.  Coming from a small town, I
expect better things from an area of this size with the artistic reputation
that it has.  But there is still more monoculture than I am comfortable
with.

And yes, I like Minneapolis very much.  Being here has been a very important
period in my artistic life and I credit much of that to the indy theatre
scene here as well as to fabulous places like the Walker Art Center.  The
University here does some amazing theatre as well--several of the best
things I've ever seen have been done there.  (The winters do suck, it's a
fact.  But haven't I made it perfectly clear that I'm a masochist?)

"Those poor kids.  So young.  So nauseous."
--Krusty the Klown Telethon for Motion Sickness


Laura Winton
fluffysingler@prodigy.net
http://pages.prodigy.net/fluffysingler